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[VOL. VIII.
month Bhadrapada of the year Tårana (Šaka 1326). The same fact is repeated in an inscription at Sravana-Belgola. Another record from the Shimoga district states that in the month Kárttika of Saka 1026 (evidently a mistake for Saka 1326), Târaņa, Bukka II. was on the throne. This date is only a couple of months or go removed from the date of Harihara's death, and naturally it might be concluded that Bakka immediately succeeded his father on the throne. That he was still reigning in Saka 1328, is evidenced by an inscription of the Ekamranatha temple at Conjeeveram. It is dated in the year Vyaya and parports to have been issued in the reign of Bakka II. Again we learn that the coronation of Devaraya I. took place in Saks 1328, in the month Kárttika of the year Vyaya. Evidently therefore Bukka's reign must have come to a close at this time. But it must also be noted that in the month Margasira of the year Tarana, Saka 1327, Virupaksha is represented as ruling in Vijayanagara. This reign overlaps that of Bukka II. Under these circumstances it is not easy to explain how Viräpåksha could have reigned in the same period, except on the supposition that either Virupakshe was acting as a regent, or that he seized the throne from his brother Bukka II., ruled for a short time, and was dethroned by the partisans of Bukka II. This latter may have been in his turn ousted from the government by Dêvarêya I. Hence we might conclude that after the death of Harihara II. there was a rapid succession of kings one after another, thus :- Bakka II., Virupaksha, Bukka II. once agaia, and Devaraya I. Virupaksha seems, therefore, to have been a raling king, though only for a short time.
Besides calling Virupaksh the lord of the Tundira, Chôļa and Pandya countries (v. 6), the record under consideration gives more details of his deeds than the Âlampûndi grant. He boasts of having weigbed himself against gold in the presence of the god Ramanaths (at Râméśvaram). He is said to have made gifts of a thousand cows and is described as the establisher of the Brahmanical faith (vēda-márga, v. 7).7 He is stated to have gilded (the rimins of the temple at Srirangam and the Golden Hall' (at Chidambaram), which latter act has boon looks upon as highly meritorious ever since the days of the earliest Choļas.
As regards the donees, it might ba remarked that most of them bear Vaishnava names; and some of them have family names which are distinctly those of a few well-known Srivaishnava Achirya-purushas.
Of the places which are mentioned in this record, Siraikkâvûr, the village granted, is the same as the modern Soraikkâvûr where the plates were found, and is 4 miles from the Kuttalam Railway Station. Tiruppåmpuram (v. 10, 11. 49 f. and 65) is now known as Tiruppambapuram and is about 9 miles west of the Nannilam station, also in the Tanjore listrict. I am unable to identify Flumuri in Eļumuri-parru (11. 60 and 64), which is literally translated into Sanskrit Saptakhanda-nivșit (v. 9), while Uyyakkonda-vaļanadu (11. 59 and 63 f.), a district of Chôļa-mandalam (1. 58 f.), is Sanskțitized as Ujjivana (v. 9).
The inscription mentions a large number of fiscal terms (11. 122-146), most of which have remained to the present day unexplained.
1 Ep. Car. Vol. VIII. Tirthahn!!i taluka, No. 129. ? Id. Vol. II. No. 126. . Ep. Carn. Vol. VIII. Tirthakaļļi taluka, No. 11. • Above, Vol. III. p. 36, note 3.- Compare also above, Vol. VI. p. 329 f.-E. H.] • Ep. Carn. Vol. V. Hassan talnka, No. 133, p. 85. . Ep. Carn. Vol. VIII. Tirthalalli talukn, No. 196.
Compare above, Vol. III. p. 118 and note 4.
* Vix. Vedagômapurattar (11.75 and 79), Gômatattar (1. 82 f.), Vangippurattar (1. 90 f), Urupputtarar (1. 97), Sottaiyar (1. 111), and Karambichchetru (1. 104).
For nepit, a division,' see verse 9 of the Alampundi plate.-E. H.]
